Charles Alexander
Parting Glances: Bread and circuses. . .
As of Saturday, February 25, 2006, the world population clicked in at 6.5 billion people. That's quite a crowd. (I figure that in the course of my lifetime I've made good friends with about 50 people — most of them, sadly, now gone.) And as of 5:04 [...]
Parting Glances: A heckuva lota trees
I'm amazed at the number of magazines currently on display in megamarkets like Barnes & Noble and Border's. Market Research Reports over 1500 titles in circulation. It seems a catchy title rolls off the high-gloss presses monthly: Modern [...]
Parting Glances: Pages from a book (Pt. 5)
During my freshman year at Cass Technical High School I was active in the Voice of Christian Youth, an evangelical outreach that held rallies "on the Devil's Saturday night" at the Masonic Temple. Witnessing for Jesus, I carried my Scofield Bible to [...]
Parting Glances: Pages from a book (Pt. 3)
The inner-city Cassboro Apartments lay empty for months before it was finally razed. The tall, once-sheltering tree at the southwest edge was eaten away by Dutch elm disease. The streetlight was shattered. ("First to see the streetlights come [...]
Parting Glances: Pages from a book (Pt. 2)
30 right; 32 left; 14 right. Click! After 50-plus years I can still recall my combination for my locker at Harry Burns Hutchins Intermediate school on Detroit's west side. I can also rattle off the 30 names of my Homeroom 223 classmates . . . Lenore [...]
Parting Glances: Seven Golden Gropes!
Maybe it's a generational thing, but I'm beside myself trying to figure out what all the buzz is about over "Brokeback Mountain." (It played simultaneously to good houses on all four Royal Oak Main Theater screens.) "Brokeback Mountain" is certainly [...]
Parting Glances: Sniff it. (With passion)
The December Psychology Today has a brief seven-question interview with in-your-face, Korean-American, straight, standup comic Margeret Cho. One of the questions asked her concerns lesbian comedians — a delightful breed of ribsters. Psychology [...]
Parting Glances: Wise men and cross-dressing chickens
An olde, olde legend — newly shared for posterity by a handful of forthright and gay-friendly scholars — says that the wise man known as Kaspar liked on festive occasions and on birthdays to do drag. (Melchior and Balthazar were both straight, but [...]
Parting Glances: This little pinkey went . . .
I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-polishing performance "Capote" at the Royal Oak Main Theater. [Special BTL thanks to the management for showing LGBT-themed films and hosting Triangle Foundation's Reel Pride stellar, week-long events.] Given [...]
Parting Glances: Hey, man. You go, girl!
There were lots of kids in the apartment complex I grew up in at 444 Peterboro, ZIPPER code 48202. And, although — through the careless grace of God –I was born an only child, I was never without friends to play Kick the Can, yell "first to see the [...]
Parting Glances: In one ear . . . .
I've been intrigued by a musically enterprising young guy — late twenties — a loner — who hangs out in my neighborhood. He's reasonably tidy, but because of unspecified social adjustment problems says he can't hold a job, and as a result sleeps in [...]
Inner turns outer: Tab tells all!
Sun tanned, towhead Art Gelien was 15 when a talent scout spotted him at a posh horse ranch frequented by movie stars. He was shoveling manure to earn money to ride horses, his teenage passion. "Hey, kid: you've movie star material," he was told by [...]